Monday, October 16, 2006

Spotlight: ChicagoBears, Piniella Rule City?

(1) Who is still mocking me for picking the Bears to win the NFC? Anyone? Seriously: What would you say the Bears' biggest weaknesses are and how likely is a remaining opponent positioned to exploit them? (Besides "threat of injury," which are everyone's weakness.)

(2) How would you evaluate the Cubs' move to hire Piniella? Can he become the Jim Leyland of the NL? (Let me get this out of the way: I'm speaking very figuratively. Obviously, the Tigers have a much more well-stocked cupboard of talent than the Cubs do.)

-- D.S.

* - If the NFL had, you know, real rankings and not just a vast collection of individual "Power Rankings" from everyone with a keyboard and a vague idea of how to list the numbers 1-32.

I can see the Cards beating the Bears tonight. The Bears have huge heads right now and will just try to go for the knockout consistently on national tv. The Cards just have to keep it close. Adrian Wilson will need to be huge for that Arizona defense.

If the Bears do win the team that will beat them will be the Patriots. The Patriots have a way of showing other teams that think they ar all that that they are still the team to beat year in and year out (see Bengals). Belichick is working on a game plan as we speak.

Speaking of the Cubs...why haven't we seen a Tommy Lasorda commercial with him talking a Yankee fan out from under his bed or something like that? And the thing that bugs me about that Cubs commercial is that he is staring right at the guy in the tree, and can see plain as day that he has a Cubs jersey on, and he still turns and asks his wife who he is a fan of...sorry for the rant, Dan.

-Bulls are a legit contender this year-the Sox will be one in 2007 (minus Uribe and his MLB-low 13 walks/shooting at Italian officers)-the Blackhawks' offense can score 5 goals a game, too bad they don't havea goalie

I think the Bears weakness will be to get ahead of them early. Playing with a lead with their D makes them unbeatable. If/when they are in an early 14-0 hole i can see Grossman doing some stupid things (like the Minnesota game). With that being said i do think they are easily the best team in the NFL right now, but most Superbowl winners don't peak in October. Let's give it some time before we give them the trophy.

Piniella! Maybe now the Cubbies can get A-Rod in a trade. Since when is 35/121 a tough year for anyone? I'd take him anyday over Aramis Ramierez. He'd be on Ditka/God status in Chicago if he can help bring a Championship to that sorry excuse for a franchise.

I agree that we have see how they do when/if they ever fall behind by more than one score. John Clayton made a comment today (or Friday?, this week) that Griese is one of the best backups in the league and even if they lost a couple of games, he could very easily command them well through the end of the regular season. I buy it.

It seems that once teams find out they can pass, they ignore their running game, especially when they have a great running back (read: the Bengals), and if they lose their offensive balance, I think they're very beatable.

Peter King:Not much drama. Not much reason to tune in past midway through the second quarter. By that time ESPN will have shown you the grand new stadium in Glendale (across the parking lot from where the Coyotes play), and you will have heard some of the Matt Leinart miking (now that's a great idea, wiring a quarterback about to be sacked nine times), and the Bears will be up 21-0

Some will go to the Colts, because they're drawn like moths to the light (ignoring that it'll turn into a bugzapper once the playoffs come). Some will return to the Steelers. But I think most will go to the Panthers, who have momentum and beat the Saints.

And let's not overstate this. Bears are probably still a mortal lock to win the Norris and go to the playoffs.

Does any city out there want to buy a team???Seriously, that's two weeks in a row the Cards get up early, then get conservative and manage to lose the game. It may not be so much that they are conservative but that the offensive line is horribly inept at run blocking. In the press conference Dennis Green talked about how they couldn't make the passes and runs when they counted. When your offense follows the pattern of run-run-pass after you are up 14 points, it's not too hard for the defense to stop it.

Not much drama. Not much reason to tune in past midway through the second quarter. By that time ESPN will have shown you the grand new stadium in Glendale (across the parking lot from where the Coyotes play), and you will have heard some of the Matt Leinart miking (now that's a great idea, wiring a quarterback about to be sacked nine times), and the Bears will be up 21-0. Around that time, weather permitting, the Mets and Cards will be 1-1 in the fourth and a better watch.

Wow is Denny Green ever a sore loser. It's certainly possible that his squad has some secret match-up mojo that allows them to compete with the Bears better than other teams (to judge from tonight, and from the preseason game), but to intimate that the Bears aren't legit? Newsflash, Denny - the Bears are 6-0, and just came back from a 20 point deficit in the 4th quarter WITHOUT SCORING A TD ON OFFENSE. That's legit. That's amazingly legit. That's a team that, the day their offense sucks, their D and special teams scores touchdowns. And, every other week, their offense goes out and gets a big lead so that the D can pin their ears back and rush the QB all day.

The Bears are magic this year. And it ain't luck, or fluky. This isn't '01. They're blowing everyone out, and when they have close games on the road, their defense is simply taking victory. They got flatout beat and deserved to lose in Minnesota (again because of a bad Rex performance on the road), and what happened? Tommie Harris took a handoff from Brad Johnson, and Rex made one good throw, and that was ballgame. Arizona absolutely DOMINATED the Bears tonight (40 minutes to 20 time of possession, 6 turnovers), and the D decided it was going to win the game. It knocked Leinart's head off and scored, then stripped Edge and scored. And then Hester looked over, said "Rex, you suck tonight - I don't think you're capable of making that throw you made in Minnesota," and he took the punt and housed it. This team is a TEAM. I don't think they'll lose this season.

What luck is involved in sacking a QB and causing a fumble and returning it for a TD? What luck is involved in stuffing a running play and then stripping the ball and taking it in for a TD? What luck is involved in a great punt returner (already 2 80+ yd punt return TDs) making a great punt return?

It wasn't luck when Tommie Harris forced a fumble in Minnesota at the perfect time, and it wasn't luck tonight. At some point you have to look at it and think, "Isn't it odd that this one team, that also happens to win all its other games by blowouts, gets amazingly lucky in games when they play badly, and win those games?" The Bears know how to WIN. They are the best team at winning in the NFL right now.

The Cardinals were "lucky" that the Bears showed up tonight and half-assed it for 45 minutes.

How can you not go back and review that play and say "Wow, Edge was stopped completely for a few seconds and the whistles should have blown," and then say the runner was down by stopped forward progress?

No, you gotta let the Bears hold him up for half a minute until someone can manage to pull the ball from his hands. Pathetic.

If the referees are going to not blow the whistle prematurely like they've been told, you have to allow reviews of when the whistle SHOULD have blown, i.e. stopping forward progress, or WHY EVEN HAVE FORWARD PROGRESS?

What luck is involved in sacking a QB and causing a fumble and returning it for a TD? What luck is involved in stuffing a running play and then stripping the ball and taking it in for a TD? What luck is involved in a great punt returner (already 2 80+ yd punt return TDs) making a great punt return? " - odiesucks

Not to mention that ALL of those things happening in the same quarter is beyond lucky (almost 2004 Red Sox ALCS lucky), but the Bears were LUCKY that an NFL kicker missed a 40 yard field goal. Or did the Bears cause that too?

It's too much of a judgement call to review. For example, someone is held up at the line for a couple seconds, then changes direction and reels off a fifteen yard gain. Do you really want opposing coaches challenging that and saying 'he should have been whistled for forward progress at the line'? Yes the refs should've blown the whistle. But I'd rather have the occasional late whistle than a challenge after every big run.

It's NOT luck that all those things happen in the same quarter. They happened in the same quarter BECAUSE THEY HAD TO HAPPEN FOR THE BEARS TO WIN. The Bears will do what they need to do to win. If they'd only needed one of the three touchdowns to win, they'd only have gotten one. They needed all three. They got three. Similarly, in Minnesota, with 2 minutes left, they needed the ball RIGHT THEN on a turnover, or they'd lose. So they took the football away and won the game.

As for the forward progress bitching, you've got to be kidding. That was not even borderline. His progressed had been stopped, arguably, for a tenth of a second at the time he got stripped. That was a fast play. It wasn't even questionable.

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